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THEPOLARGAME
•
22008
 
contents 
no.
2/2008 
 
1
 
 
 THE POLAR GAME EDITORIAL
2
EDITORIAL
 
Editorial  
“O 
UR PLANET IS BECOMING LARGER
. NOT IN A
 physical sense but as in geopolitical space. A new, immense territory of approximately30 million square kilometers – one hundred times the size of Italy and one-sixth of terrestrial mass. It is the Arctic, occupying half of the Polar Sea that connects the Atlantic to the Pacific, which remains covered by ice for nine months of the year. However, the elevation of temperatures is redesigning the environmental profile of theextreme North. From 1994 to today, its icy surface has been reduced beyond 40,000square kilometers per year and the medium thickness of ice has diminished by 40%.This theme seems destined to increase; a forecast by some authorities of climatology. And thus the curtain rises revealing a completely new geopolitical and economic scene.The “game for the Pole” has begun.The principles of the game are as followed:1. The hunt for new natural resources: it is estimated that a quarter of the world’shydrocarbon reservoirs are in the Arctic.2. The opening of new ways for marine-based commerce. The mythical Passage tothe north-west should be made free from ice in the not-so-far-off future. As an example,the Yokohama-Rotterdam route would be reduced from 11,200 nautical miles (via theSuez) to approximately 6,500.3. In the context of major food insecurities, the race for the ichthyic reservoirs of the Arctic becomes strategic. It is here because when an expedition, promoted and blessed personally byVladimir Putin, planted the tricolor of Russia four kilometers under the North Pole,chanceries and diplomats of half the world became agitated. A purely symbolic gesturebut it marks that Russia does not intend to renounce its legal claims to territories and the Arctic seas. The climax between the five Arctic powers – Russia, Denmark, theUnited States, Norway and Canada – is turning itself to Ilulissat (Greenland, anautonomous territory under Danish sovereignty) since the 27th to the 29th of last May,confirming on paper the respect of enforced laws of the sea (in particular, the relative1982 Convention of the United Nations) certainly has not been enough to clear mutualsuspicions and fears. The Russians, Danish, Canadians and Norwegians are trying todemonstrate that their respective continental platforms are extended profoundly intothe Artic, therefore demanding the extension of their own territorial waters so as to participate in the “game for the Pole” thereby gaining a more favorable position.Thus, Canada and Denmark have touched upon the struggle for control of the famous Island of Hans, located in the strategic Nares Strait, while Oslo and Moscow disputeon the respective rights to the Barents Sea, where formidable energetic wealth awaits.
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